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Sunday, 25 March 2012

I have recently become the guardian of five Monarch butterfly caterpillars. I was so excited when I found one on my tiny Swan Plant and I thought it was the only one.
After this one had gone into a chrysalis,

I went out a few days later to look at it and found four more tiny caterpillars on the plant. I almost panicked as I thought of four hungry caterpillars feeding on my small Swan Plant. So off to Mitre Ten I went to buy two more plants to feed my growing family. Now all are doing well and number two went into its chrysalis on Friday. It attached itself to the house. Maybe because it was so windy it didn't trust itself to the Swan Plant.
Two more are getting quite fat and will soon be in their chrysalises. The last one will have no competition for food, but I hope it will have time to develop into a butterfly now that the weather is getting colder.

Meantime, the first caterpillar is almost ready to emerge as a beautiful Monarch butterfly.
There is plenty of life in Beauty's Wildflower Garden. With all the rain we have had the plants are luxuriant and starting to show flower buds. Hopefully it will soon be a riot of colour.